OPI Mad as a Hatter.. (shoot me...

I didn't really like this one.................)



Maybe it was all the hype that built up a high expectation, but I did not like this one as much as I expected or wanted. After applying it on my nails, I honestly was a bit disappointed.... It is nice, don't get me wrong, but it's nothing amazing-definitely not as amazing as Absolutely Alice. Is anyone with me on this?

Between Absolutely Alice and this one, AA is for sure the better glitter from the collection.

Tomorrow is Grammy's night!! Can't wait to see all the celebs nails!! Hopefully, the bands and people I'm rooting for will win!!! I reaallly want MGMT, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Neil Young to win in their respective categories!

OPI Lincoln After Dark Suede

Pretty purple suede! I love this, along with the rest of the Suede Collection!

I've finally made up my mind and believe I am a matte fan! I love the colors that I own, and they are so practical! I basically applied this one 10 minutes before going to sleep and it still looked good the next day!

I know this has been asked many times, but I want to know, what do you think about mattes/suedes? Let me know in the comments! :)

Have a nice weekend!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Lulu

Hello!!!
How's your week going so far?!

RBL Lulu is a super cute light pink creme. I love the color of this one. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed: normally, RBL formula only takes two coats to get opacity. With Lulu, the formula was thin and streaky, so it took 4 coats to get bottle color and achieve evenness... still, there were a few lighter spots here and there but, I can let that slide ;) ....

Lulu owners, is your formula streaky and thin too? Let me know!!

OPI Absolutely Alice

One word: A-MAZING!

Do I need to say more?! If you don't have this one yet, GO GET IT!!!! My picture doesn't do it justice..... I didn't even take time to cleanup, I was so excited to take the picture!!!

OPI DS Original

Good morning!
I hope you're having a nice weekend!

I can't wait for summer to come! I miss the warm weather! Don't you??

Anyways....this is the second holo bottle I was able to swatch: OPI DS Original (Japanese version)
I've been told that the Japanese version is lighter than the regular version. Nevertheless, this one is very pretty! Light purple holo, it looks great in the shade, and even better in the sun! Love the rainbow!

Enjoy the rest of the day, guys!

Color Club Revvvolution

Happy Saturday!

We had a bit of sun recently so I hastily grabbed two bottles of holo polish to swatch!

The first, Color Club Revvvolution, a black holographic.

Pretttyy!! 2 coats was enough to achieve bottle color, as the polish itself was very pigmented. The consistency of the formula was great. For some reason, I thought this one would be more holo but eh, whatever. It's still gorgeous!

Lippmann Collection Marquee Moon

Morning! Weekend is here finally!
I hope you all had a wonderful week!

Today, I have Marquee Moon for you! Metallic silver base with silver hexagonal sequins.

From Deborah Lippmann:

Marquee Moon was created for the genius designers RODARTE's fall fashion collection and worn on the runway. Each nail is supposed to look different. You might get one 'sequin' on one nail and 10 'sequins' on the next nail. That is the way it is supposed to come out of the bottle so dont TRY to make the 'sequins'' come out and look the same on each nail. Deconstructed is the look on both of these shades [talking about Marqueen Moon and Funky Chunky].

I LOVE THIS!

I know many did not like Funky Chunky, but I'm glad to say that Marquee Moon is nothing like it! The silver sequins in Marquee Moon are bigger than in Funky Chunky, and there are a lot less [in terms of quantity] in the bottle. This means that the brush doesn't pick up as many hexagonal glitter so application is a lot better, I find. It was also easier to control. You don't have to worry about where the sequins are, or if there's too many sequins on top of the others, because the chances are that you won't have that many on your nails. As you can see from the first picture above, my right ring finger was sequin-less.

Funky chunky:
Also, since the sequins are bigger, a top coat doesn't change the look. With Funky Chunky, I thought it was better to wear it without a top coat.

If you didn't like Funky Chunky, I think you should give Marquee Moon a chance. It looks very nice in person, and it only took 2 coats to achieve bottle color, whereas with FC, after 2 coats, it was still a bit sheer.

What do you think? Did you like Funky Chunky and will you try/have you tried Marquee Moon?

Miss K nails: Cute and simple

It's Thursday! The weekend is almost here!!!

Today I have for you another Miss K design!

I thought this one was adorable. My friend did a simple white French manicure and added a silver glitter line to outline the tips. To top everything off, she added a small orange bow on each of her nails.

That's it for today!
-X

Rescue Beauty Lounge Au Chocolat

Rescue Beauty Lounge Au Chocolat- A gorgeous chocolate creme. It's the perfect dark brown shade for me!!!

RBL's formula never ceases to amaze me. Everytime, I'm impressed by how smooth and easy it is to apply and find myself ooh-ing and aah-ing.

Have a great day!
-X

Orly Mandalay Ruby

Hi all!
I hope you're having a great week so far!

(Sorry for the blurry picture)

This was Orly Mandalay Ruby (3 coats) and Orly Nails for Males top coat.
A gorgeous red creme.

OPI Have a Tempura Tan-Trum

OPI Have a Tempura Tan-Trum -- beautiful light peachy beige creme. This was 3 coats, because it was quite streaky at 2 coats. This was my go-to colour during the summer, when I still worked at my city's Town Hall (work=playing Freecell all day ;) ). Definitely a safe, work colour!

A Surprise Package!

WOOHOO I got a surprise package from my lovely aunt in DC. ILOVEHER!!!!

From left to right: Pamplona Purple, Suzi Skies in the Pyrenees, Parlez-vous OPI?

Teal the Cows Come Home, Ate Berries in the Canaries, Mad as a Hatter, Absolutely Alice

I'm ecstatic!! I'm mostly excited about the last 2, because I was JUST about to order them from TransDesign! *sigh* I can now go to sleep a happy teenager! :P

Sweet Dreams, everyone!

My New Stuff!!!

My aunt and uncles just got back from Washington D.C. and we're kind enough to bring me my packages!

First, my RBL haul!

Unfortunately, I did not receive Dead Calm, because it's on backorder. Bummer.

Finally, I got Lippmann Collection Marquee Moon!! I've been dying to get this one since I saw it swatched on other nail blogs!! I'm glad it got here safe!
Yay! I'll try to get these swatched as soon as possible!!
Have a great week!

My Friend's Nails

Hi! I hope you are all having a nice weekend!

Today's nails picture are from my fellow nailpolish lover friend. She received a big Konad set from her dear boyfriend for Christmas, that lucky girl!! She's really better than me at Konading and nail art stuff, so I'm sharing a picture of her nails with you guys!

Here it is:

She used China Glaze Mom's Chiffon as a base. I forgot to ask which plate she used though...

I'm always looking forward to seeing what she does with her nails. They always looks so good! I'll try to take pictures of her nails more often. It'll be different from my one-colour nail post!

**Edited to add: My friend wants to be called Miss K and we've decided that she will make an appearance on my blog twice a week! Yay!

"The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results."
-James Dean


It's midnight and I'm here doing my readings for school... I just realized how happy I am studying Art. I recently decided to make a program transfer from Management to Art History and Communication Studies (big change, I know!). Although nothing is official yet, I am very happy to be taking Arts classes this semester and am sure I won't regret my decision.

Anyways, I've learned to live by this quote during my first semester at University. I found out mid-semester that Management was not the way to go for me. I lost motivation and felt like dropping out several times, but I kept on going to class... I understood that it didn't matter whether I got good grades or not... I'm proud of myself for having toughed it out and am happy that I've found a program that excites and motivates me everyday.

Look at me - I gotta case of body language

No, no, those are not lyrics from a Heidi Montag's song, but rather, from one of the greatest band EVER, Queen!!

Queen's Body Language was the song that I had stuck in my head when I swatched this color--Essie Body Language.
I would describe this shade as a pinkish, greyish neutral shade. It's a very very light beige colour, I'd say. (3 coats)

I think I've got the 'cantstopshopping' bug... School being right downtown and in the middle of shops is NOT helping me...I'm constantly thinking about my next purchase, whether it's nail polish, CDs or clothes; and what stores I want to go to.
What's happening?! I was so good last semester!! Must.resist.Concentrate.on.school.

Essie Swept Off My Feet

Swept Off My Feet - cute muted pink creme. It feels strange to type this, but I really like this color on me! Application was ok-the formula is a bit thin and runny so I had to do 3 coats.

China Glaze Agent Lavender

from the Operation Colour collection
Agent Lavender is a beautiful light lavender creme... putting this on made me wonder why I waited so long to try it... I love this shade! This was 2 coats.

Wednesday nights are going to be looooonnnngg..
Glee! Come back, already! I need you!!!

Last week's manis...

Hi all! I'm sorry for the lack of updates!
Last week was my first week of school so I've been busy waiting for a spot to open up for me in the classes I wanted to take. Plus, I needed additional information about my program transfer so I met with several academic advisors!

This past week, I had ManGlaze The Death Tar, Zoya Alix and OPI Catherine the Grape on my nails. Not together, of course, I did manage to change mani during the week.

The Death Tar I have is the "original" version, which is less black and less matte than the new, vegan version, called Matte is Murder. Please excuse the dry hands here.. I had just gotten back from school when I took the photograph.

Next is Zoya Alix, a gorgeous dark red creme. I have to say that this is probably my favorite red polish from my collection. The photograph doesn't do it justice though, for some reason, I had a hard time capturing its true color...... So I'll leave you with 2 Alix pictures!

Finally, we have OPI Catherine the Grape, a purple shimmer. I'm a sucker for anything purple, so I love it!

So that's all! I promise I'll update more regularly now, since I have 2 days off during the week :)

Anything new with you guys?! Any nail polish hauls?!

-X

2010

Hi!

How has 2010 been treating you?! School has started yesterday and I have to say that I'm pretty excited about this next semester! I am taking Art History classes now, and I'm looking forward to an official transfer from management in Spring. I've always been into all kinds of art so I know I'll have so much fun!

Anyways, I have swatched anything for a while, as my break was mostly full of family reunions. Needless to say, we ate most of the time... However, I managed to capture a few of my NOTD.

The first is China Glaze Cords-nice metallic taupe. It's beautiful and application was easy and smooth.


Next is Sephora by OPI Ocean Love Potion-creme turquoise. It is very similar to Misa Dirty Sexy Money, only OLP is darker. Unfortunalety, I do not have a comparison shot.


After baking my first batch of cookies, my cousin asked me to bake more (80 cookies!!) for a potluck party she was going to attend. I asked my sister to assist me and we decided to name our bakery Tinix and Arnton's bakery, influenced by Felix and Norton, of course (our family calls us Tina and Annie).

Our second attempt was soooo much better! There looked good and tasted excellent! I followed to recipe and used baking soda and all purpose flour, unlike last time. We're looking to start our cookie business soon ;)

Finally, I got the best gift ever from my cousin!!! A SNUGGIE! It's really the best thing ever! It keeps me warn and is super soft! Plus, a bonus reading light doesn't hurt! I used my Snuggie all the time now! My cousin told me she had wanted to get me the pink or zebra ones, but guess what?! It was SOLD OUT! How crazy is that?! I didn't think people actually liked this... but I'm now a Snuggie convert!
I hope you guys all had a blast celebrating the New Year!
Any New Year's resolution?

Until next time,
Xuan-An

Hello, 2010!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Happiness, health and good wishes to all!!